This month's featured member is

Icon

The Icon, Women and Young People’s Academy (IWYPLA) was conceived in 2005 and formally established in 2007 to fully unleash the leadership potential of women and young people (male and female) including women and young people who have been socially marginalized or affected and living with HIV/AIDS and/or gender based violence, to fully take the lead in developing innovative approaches to address poverty, violence, gender inequality and gender inequity in all areas of society.

Goal of the Icon Women and Young People’s Leadership Academy

The goal of the Women and Young People’s Leadership Academy is to pilot a new approach to building a multigenerational leadership cadre of men, women and young people who have the passion and commitment to rid society of the some of the most pervasive causes of under-development – gender inequalities and gender inequity.

Vision

IWYPLA envisions “a totally transformed, progressive and violence free Uganda and Africa”.

Mission

The organization’s mission is “to fully ignite the potential for visionary leadership in Uganda’s and Africa’s women and young people through the facilitation and promotion of self-help, self-determination and self-empowerment approaches”.

The WYPLA has three programs designed to address the unique leadership development needs of children, young adults (male and female) and women. These are:

• Children’s Leadership Program (CLP)

Developed to cultivate and inspire leadership among in school children (3-18 year old), the Children’s Leadership Program (CLP) seeks to nurture today’s and tomorrow’s leaders at an early age. Principles of rights, responsibilities, citizenship, innovation and creativity are inculcated into children and the long term goal of the program is to enrich the formal African education curriculum. Our approach is being piloted in partnership with selected schools in Northern, Central and Eastern Uganda.  Under this program, in addition to leadership development, the organization is trying to enhance gender responsiveness in school children through the promotion of girl child empowerment and sensitization of the boy child on issues pertaining to gender equality.

• Women Leaders Network (WLN)

The Women Leaders Network (WLN) is a growing peer mentorship network of women and young professionals in all sectors. Committed to systemic community based social transformation, it facilitates peer to peer learning through sharing of ideas, experiences and best case practices as well as mentorship and coaching. Under this program, leadership enhancement seminars are organized quarterly. Like in all programs, there is ongoing mentoring and support for all members. 

• Young Leaders Network (YLN)

The Young Leaders Network (YLN) is a unique space that targets post secondary school students, university students and recent university/college graduates. It provides them with a space to conceptualize and launch creative business and social ventures in a peer supportive environment.

Under this program, the organization is working with different groups of people between the ages of 18 – 30. Examples of the YLN initiatives include the following:

1. Convening Space for leadership development initiatives by young people for young people like the Girls2Leaders Movement. The Girls2Leaders Movement was founded by an Icon mentee with the aim of building leadership capacities among female university students and recent graduates in order to equip them with skills that will help them become gender activists.
   
   
2. A Young People’s Mentorship Partnership with young people at University like AIESEC an international student club at the Kampala International University (KIU). Icon develops the leadership capacity of such students and creates space for them to interact with other young leaders in secondary and primary school under the Icon CLP to enhance their leadership potential. Opportunities for internship for AIESEC students under the exchange program have also been created.
3. A Community Based Young People’s Leadership Development group in Munyonyo, Salaama, Kampala, District Uganda that comprises of a cross section of young people affected by urban poverty and other social disadvantages like missed opportunities and dropping out of school.
4. An Internship/Volunteer program that provides formal education sector graduates with an opportunity to gain a range of skills and experiences through apprentice type placements within the Icon network.
5. Young Men against Gender Inequalities
   Icon WYPLA is facilitating the formation of a Leadership network of young men in Uganda who are helped to understand the importance of addressing all practices that promote gender inequalities in society.

Our Strategies:

The IWYPLA employs the following strategies across the program areas:

1. Operational Research
2. Information  Sharing  and  Policy Advocacy
3. Capacity Building using a Self Help and Empowerment (SHE) approach
4. Coalition and Movement Building

To find out more about ICON and their work contact:

Icon Women & Young People's Leadership Academy
Town House No 2, Rohi Courts, Kansanga - Gaba Road
P O Box 5388, Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256-3120261190/414348780

www.iconwypla.org

View last month's featured member here.